The Chug-It List: 6 UVA Drinking Traditions To Do Before Graduating

It’s no secret that UVa does its fair share of partying. While drinking might not be for everyone here, most of our unofficial school traditions do revolve around alcohol, and what kind of UVa student would you be if you messed with tradition? In order to assert your dominance as a true Hoo, here are just a few of the many local drinking “traditions” you should make sure you’ve done so you can say you graduated with the sincerest “honors of honor.”

6.) Midsummers:

Like birds returning to their cozy, alcohol-ridden nests, UVa students all flock back to Charlottesville for one weekend in July for the phenomenon known as “Midsummers.” After weeks of internship woes, minimum wage, and naggy NoVa parents, the kids decide they deserve a break, and make the journey to come get fucked up like the good ole’ days of last semester. Coupe’s, Crozet, Bilt, Boylan, Trin, Eddy’s — UVa students turn out in droves to damage their livers and singlehandedly improve the Charlottesville economy for 3 nights in a row. It’s just the taste of normalcy they need to last until fall semester resumes in August.

5.) Block Party:

Fall semester! Woo-hoo! Everyone is so happy to move in and see each other after 3 agonizing months of being apart that they binge drink for an entire weekend. The best day of move-in weekend is Saturday, because that’s when Wertland Street becomes one giant Block Party. This night is single-handedly responsible for turning sheltered, geeky first years into some of the best and brightest drunk people we know and love today, but they couldn’t do it without the wasted upperclassmen leading the way. Local police anticipate for this night every August, and the entire squad shows up to make sure we “stay out of the road” and “aren’t too drunk,” but let’s face it, Wahoos can’t be tamed.

4.) 4th Year 5th:

At the very last home football game of every year, it is ceremonious for 4th years to kill an entire fifth of the alcohol of their choosing by themselves throughout the day. You might have been wondering why people seem drunker than usual at the last game of every year, and now you have your answer. Rumor has it that this very drinking tradition gave birth to our very own Goose Boy incident, but Goose Boy still claims that he was sober on this night. Yeah, tell that to the ESPN announcers, everyone in attendance at the game glued to the Jumbotron, and the folks watching us get brutally murdered in football from the comfort of their home television sets. No one in their sober mind sings Journey into a plastic goose.

3.) Survivor Hour, Pint Night, and Trivia Night:

Local bars on The Corner are fully aware of UVa students’ infatuation with drinking, and so they’re kind enough to offer us hella drinking specials. Mellow Mushroom gives us Pint Night on Tuesday and comes in clutch with Trivia Night on Wednesday, while Bilt makes us question our sanity at Survivor hour every Thursday night. You might be wondering how college kids’ attempts to be frugal young alcoholics are considered “tradition,” but it only takes one visit to these magical destinations to understand. Nothing beats witnessing a room full of people with the mental capacity to discover the cure for cancer simultaneously getting very, very drunk and a little sweaty.

2.) Foxfield:

Every year students pile onto buses in their preppiest ties, dresses, and shoes, and set up a drunken summer camp in the middle of a racetrack. We’re not sure when it stopped being about watching the actual horse race and started being about a simple relocation of a fancy darty, but the kids are into it. Besides, it’s kind of fun to pretend to be high society for an afternoon and drink yourself so far into oblivion that you forget next week is finals.

1.) The “Wahoo”:

A Boylan Heights classic for as long as we can remember, which frankly might not be long because the alcohol is starting to destroy our good brain capacities and stuff. This tasty mixed drink is served in a nifty little plastic cup that you’re allowed to keep after you’re done drinking it, which shows that they know just how much college kids dig free stuff. Wahoos are good during any season of the year, for any occasion. And don’t you just love that name? You can’t get more UVa than that.

For those of you graduating in a few weeks, it might be too late to cross all of these items off the list. However, it’s never too early to start. All you first, second, and third years grab those fake IDs and get started. Tradition awaits.